


The Beginning

by twinklingpaopufruit



Series: Supernatural AU Series [2]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Angel Hao, Hunter Mingyu, M/M, Pre-Relationship, prequel to Fare Thee Well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:28:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24274345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinklingpaopufruit/pseuds/twinklingpaopufruit
Summary: Minghao saves Mingyu from Hell, and Mingyu is not happy.A story of how they first met~
Relationships: Kim Mingyu/Xu Ming Hao | The8
Series: Supernatural AU Series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752166
Comments: 5
Kudos: 41





	The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to Fare Thee Well and gives a little backstory to how Mingyu came back.

Mingyu doesn’t understand. One minute he’s digging a knife in between some damned soul’s eyes and the next he’s clawing his way out of his own coffin. 

Mingyu gasps for breath at the first suction of fresh air. His nails have been stripped raw and are aching terribly, but it can't compare to the pain of the sudden real beating of his heart. He rubs at his chest in confusion. 

He can’t fathom why he’s back.

He sits on a bed of cosmos flowers underneath the scorching hot sun and contemplates whether this is some sick twisted hallucination. He sits for a moment longer, eyes squinting against the bright light. He realizes that the bed of flowers he’s sitting on is real. The waft of fresh cosmos works their way up his nostrils a stark contrast to the putrid stench of ripped, decaying flesh or burning corpses. 

A shaky breath leaves his lips. Slowly, Mingyu stands to his feet. He glances around the field of flowers, searching for...he doesn’t know. A gust of wind passes by and brushes a curling whisper against his ear. 

Realization hits him.

He wouldn’t. Wonwoo—Seungcheol is just as capable and stupid— 

Mingyu takes strong strides forward, desperate to find civilization. 

He pulls his shaky legs to hike for two miles until he sees an abandoned liquor store. Mingyu tumbles inside and without thinking, he’s already grasping a water bottle and downing it whole. When he finishes his second bottle, the survival instinct kicks in. He dashes to the cashier and grabs a bag. Mingyu’s breath stutters as he catches his reflection in the convex mirror hanging above the cashier stand. 

His twenty-four-year-old face is staring back at him without any maar or blemish. Mingyu tentatively reaches for his cheeks and presses his fingers there. He pulls the skin, expecting it to come sliding off in muscle and flesh like the thousands of times before. It only bounces back into place. Mingyu’s brows furrow. The plastic bag crinkles on the ground as Mingyu yanks up his shirt. He expects to see the claw marks and bites from the hellhound who had dragged him into the pit. But there’s nothing except for…

A welt of burnt flesh peeks just right above the edge of his shirt.

Mingyu pulls his shirt down and rolls up his sleeve. A red welting handprint is seared onto his right shoulder. Mingyu fits his hand over it, confused. The hand is slightly bigger than his and Mingyu can tell that the fingers are long and knobby. What the?

The fear from before consumes him. Had Wonwoo or Seungcheol made another deal? They couldn’t. They wouldn’t. They know the consequences. Demon deals are what got him here in the first place. 

But what else would have dragged him out of Hell if not for a demon?

At the thought of his friends, Mingyu moves back into action. He pulls his sleeve back into place and shoves as many snacks as he can into the bag. 

Hunger eats at him. 

Mingyu nearly laughs hysterically at the sensation. He can’t remember the last time he was hungry. How long has it been? 30 years? 

He sees his favorite flavor of squid chips and Mingyu reaches for it with a bright smile. Suddenly, the gas station begins to rattle and shake. Earthquake?

His question is answered with a high-pitched screech. The windows shatter and Mingyu has to fall to the ground and cover his face from the incoming glass and falling shelves.

Not ten seconds later the noise and the shaking stops. Mingyu sits on his knees and carefully glances around expecting to see a demon or two standing behind him. And Mingyu is right.

He stands to his feet quickly and reaches for his waistband on instinct. He doesn’t have his gun or hunting knife, he’s utterly defenseless to the demon before him.

The demon is strangely dressed. He has a long-sleeved striped black and white t-shirt with a black shirt thrown over with the face of Kermit the Frog. He’s wearing paint-splattered jeans with the back of the ends cut off to make room for the tag of his white rain boots. And really? A mullet with fake reading glasses?

“How are you, Mingyu?” The figure speaks. His voice is light and airy. 

“What?” Mingyu startles. 

“It was my first time gripping a soul and saving it from perdition. I hope I did a good job.”

Mingyu gets his bearings and retorts, “Yeah, and why would a demon save me from hell?”

“You must be mistaken. I’m no demon.”

“Then what are you? A witch! I hate witches.” It would definitely explain the wardrobe. Seungkwan dresses weird too if Mingyu recalls. 

The creature frowns. “I’m an angel, Mingyu.”

Mingyu scoffs, “Prove it. Where’s the fluffy wings and halo?”

“My wings don’t reside in this temporal plane and if I were to show you my true form your eyes would burn out of their sockets.”

“True form? You're possessing some kid?” Mingyu shouts. Now looking more carefully the body the demon is inhabiting is far too young.

The demon looks down at his shirt and smiles softly. “Not possession. I asked for permission and he said yes. This vessel is the same age as you.”

Mingyu can’t believe this. “Are you serious?”

“Yes, why would I not be serious?”

“You can’t be an angel.”

The creature gives him a cursory look and says, “What else would I be?”

Mingyu doesn’t know how to reply and he takes a step toward the back exit. 

“I mean you no harm, Mingyu. I can promise you that.”

“Yeah? Well then get as far away from me as possible.” 

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?” Mingyu nearly shouts. He doesn’t like feeling trapped with an unknown threat. 

“Because my superior told me to watch over you.”

“Yeah, and who is that superior?”

“Jihoon.”

Mingyu balks at that, not expecting Minghao to reply so bluntly.

“Whose Jihoon?”

“Another angel. A seraph actually.”

“You're really trying to sell that angel pitch, huh?”

“I’m not selling anything. Mingyu, I really am an angel of the lord. My name is Minghao, The Angel of 8.”

Mingyu can’t believe he’s having this conversation, but he’s waiting to catch the demon to slip in a lie. “8?”

“Humans associate it with resurrection and creation. It was I who blessed the 8 prophets of the New Testament, blessed Abraham and his 8 sons, guided Jesus to appear 8 times after his resurrection--“

“I'm going to stop you there, I’m not buying this.” Mingyu hesitates for a moment, but then he’s out the door. 

He makes it onto the road and he peeks over his shoulder to make sure he’s not being followed. He needs to find a phone, a weapon, something! He doesn’t even know where he’s at. 

Mingyu yelps as he suddenly collides with something.

He falls to the ground and stares in horror as Minghao stands above him. 

“Are you alright?” The creature asks. 

“Get away from me!” Mingyu shouts back peddling and creating a reasonable distance between them.

The creature does a great job of faking the hurt across his eyes.

“I just want to help.”

“You want to help? Leave me alone.”

“I already told you, I can’t do that.” 

“So what? You’re just going to follow me around.”

The creature gives him a very serious look and just says, “Yes.”

“I can’t believe it. I have a demon playing little duckling.”

“I already told you. I’m no demon and I most certainly am no duck!” 

Mingyu realizes he’s still on the floor and gets to his feet. “Ok, so demon? Angel? I don’t care. You really want to help then tell me where I am.”

“Taebaek.”

“Are you serious?” Mingyu shouts. How did he end up here? And more importantly how he was going to get to Vernon’s?

“Do you need help reaching a destination? I promise you I can get you there very quickly.”

“What are demons driving now?”

“I thought we could just fly there.”

“Of course, fly. Are you going to bust out your angel wings and carry me to Sangju?”

“That was the idea, yes. Is that where you need to go?”

Before Mingyu can voice a reply, the creature steps quickly toward him and places two fingers to his forehead. Mingyu gasps in shock and nearly keels over onto dry grass. His head is spinning and he feels a tightness in his stomach that reminds him of indigestion. 

“Sorry, I should have warned you,” Minghao states. “Teleporting from one location to another can be jarring to humans.”

Mingyu nods through the acid reflux, still hunched over. Mingyu takes full breaths of air through his mouth and then stands back up. He examines his surroundings and sees that he’s standing in front of a rice field. There’s nothing for miles except for grass.

“Why did you want to come here?” Minghao questions.

Mingyu sighs and rolls his eyes. He starts walking. Unsurprisingly, Minghao follows him. 

“Mingyu?” Minghao questions.

The hunter ignores him. He continues walking and spots a busted water well. He quickly recognizes it, he threw a firework inside to kill a Gwisin who was crawling out of it. 

Minghao doesn’t say anything for the five-mile hike they trek across the fields. They come across a small town, houses spread far from one another to make room for smaller farms and people who owned farm animals. 

Mingyu walks past a chicken and sees the familiar shape of Vernon’s home. It’s a small house, run-down, and barely kept up with maintenance. Mingyu had been helping Vernon make a few repairs, replacing the floorboards, repairing the roof, repolishing the wood by window sills. He takes it all in and sees that all his construction efforts all look half-abandoned as if no one had touched it. 

Mingyu sighs and jumps onto the porch, knocking on the door. He waits for Vernon to come to answer the door and awkwardly looks behind as Minghao stands there observing the architecture. 

He turns back when the door opens; he’s greeted by Vernon looking wide-eyed. Vernon immediately slams the door shut.

“What the fuck?” Mingyu hisses. He pounds his fist on the door. “Vernon, open up!”

“You have three seconds to back away from the door before you get a silver bullet in your head,” Vernon shouts back. 

Mingyu rolls his eyes, “Vernon. I’m not a shapeshifter.”

He hears movement from the other side. He glances up and curses as he trips over one of Vernon’s thousands of booby traps. His ankle pulls at a string and a bucket of holy water falls onto his head. Mingyu licks his lip and prays for patience. He takes note that some of the holy water falls on Minghao too and has no effect—guess, he is telling the truth. 

“Not a demon either!” Mingyu shouts.

“Then you’re a revenant!” Vernon yells. 

Mingyu can hear him moving about inside and Mingyu rolls his head back in annoyance. He presses his forehead against the wooden door. “Hansol. Please, just let me in.”

There’s silence for several seconds but he hears the click of a lock and the door is slowly being pulled open.

Vernon has a gun in his hand and a silver knife in the other. 

“Mingyu?” Vernon questions hesitantly.

“Back and good.”

Mingyu nearly cries in relief as Vernon launches at him and pulls him into a hug. Mingyu can’t do much but hug his friend around the waist. The urge to sob into his friend’s neck is too much and the only reason he doesn’t cry is that he feels a slash against the back of his arm.

Mingyu pulls back and holds his bleeding arm, where Vernon had slightly nicked him. “Vernon, what the fuck?”

“Sorry, I had to check. Um...who’s your friend?

“An angel,” Mingyu says flippantly. 

Vernon makes a distressed face. “A what?!

Mingyu steps inside. He walks down the familiar hallway to Vernon’s living room. Everything looks nearly the same. The ugly camouflage chair that Seungcheol had stolen from a dive dumpster, the dented coffee table, the tv balancing precariously over a rickety foldable desk. Mingyu goes to sit at the familiar gray sofa, but instead heads to Vernon’s cylindrical desk, grabbing his laptop. He almost falls backward, nearly forgetting the damaged wheels of the office chair. 

“How are you back?” Vernon questions him at the entryway. 

Minghao makes his way past him and stands by the coffee table, examining the room. Mingyu ignores him. 

“I don’t know. I think Seungcheol or Wonwoo made a crossroads deal,” Mingyu answers. 

Minghao interrupts them. “I gripped him tight and raised him from perdition.

Vernon looks at him next, “And you’re an angel?”

“Yes.”

“Does this angel have a name?”

The creature smiles, “Minghao.”

Vernon leans against the wall and shoves his hands into the pocket of his hoodie. “Okay.”

“Okay?!” Mingyu hollers. 

“We’ve seen a lot of shit, Mingyu. An angel doesn’t really surprise me at this point anymore.”

“But really, angels?”

Vernon shrugs. “There’s just as much lore about angels as demons. Why not? To be honest I’m surprised we haven’t run into one yet.”

“Your friend is very wise,” Minghao states.

Mingyu gives both of them a deadpanned look, especially at Vernon since his friend preens at the compliment.

“This house,” Minghao begins, “It’s intricately and heavily warded. It’s beautiful.”

“Yeah,” Vernon shuffles awkwardly. “My parents warded this house.”

Vernon turns to Mingyu and changes the conversation, “Seungcheol tried to make a few deals but the crossroad demons wouldn’t budge. They said you were too good of a soul to give up.”

“Where are Seungcheol and Wonwoo?”

Vernon glances at the floor.

“Vernon?” Mingyu asks imploringly. “Where are they?”

“Seungcheol is in Daegu. He doesn’t tell me what he’s doing but he’s nice enough to drop a location once in a while. Wonwoo has fallen off the grid. I don't know where he’s been in the last three months.”

“Three months?”

“Yeah, you’ve been dead for that long.”

“That can’t be—” Mingyu swears he had been trapped in hell for nearly thirty years. 

Mingyu puffs out his chest and says, “I need to find them. Where’s your phone?”

“In my desk drawer, but what are you going to do?”

Mingyu opens Vernon’s desk and jerks in surprise as he knocks over a glass bottle. He glances down and sees a dozen soju bottles lying underneath the desk. Now, Mingyu really looks around the room. The place is a mess. Liquor bottles are all over the room, there are stains in the rug, clothes strewn all over the room, and half-eaten food. Surprisingly, the cleanest place looks to be the kitchen with just a thick layer of dust. 

“Like I said,” Vernon says blankly, “You were gone for three months and this is how I’ve been coping.” 

“Right,” Mingyu says sadly. 

“How are you going to search for them?”

“I’m not. I’m gonna reach out of someone who can.”

He looks through Vernon’s contacts and dials a number. 

He hears a familiar voice. “You have reached the Mystic Angel. How can I help you?”

“Cut the crap, Jeonghan it’s me,” Mingyu says impatiently. 

Silence meets him on the other line. 

Mingyu pulls the phone away from his ear, thinking that Jeonghan had hung up. When he sees the call is still on, he asks, “Jeonghan?” 

Jeonghan’s proud teasing bravado fades in a soft murmur. “I heard the spirits whispering, but I wasn’t sure.”

“Yeah, I need you to find—”

“Seungcheol and Wonwoo,” Jeonghan cuts off. Mingyu can only imagine the smile tugging at his friend’s lips. “Mingyu, I don’t need to be psychic for that. When the three of you showed up at my door declaring that you would seek vengeance on the blue-eyed demon that killed your friend I knew you would do anything for each other.”

Mingyu shakes off the memory of Jun’s burning body stuck to the ceiling. “Are you going to help me or not?” He asks impatiently. 

Jeonghan sighs and Mingyu can hear the clattering of pans in the background. “Seungcheol is in Daegu, but he’s on his way here. I called him when the spirits started chattering.”

“And Wonwoo?”

“The spirits tell me he’s in Jeju.”

“Jeju? What’s he doing there?”

“I don’t know, Mingyu but your friend. He’s working with really dark stuff. You need to go save him.”

Mingyu hums in acknowledgment and ends the call. He looks up at Minghao. He doesn’t want to do this, but he’s desperate and needs to get to Wonwoo. 

“How far can your teleportation powers take us?” Mingyu asks him.

“Anywhere in the world,” Minghao answers.

“Great, we’re going to Jeju then.”

**Author's Note:**

> I will be uploading more from this series so look forward to it in the next couple of days.


End file.
